As some of you may know, I discontinued my old blog due to the fact that it was being read by people for whom its contents were never intended. This is not to say that my ego isn't tickled when some random person reads the blog and drops a comment or two (shout out to our anonymous European friend). I realize that by throwing my thoughts out into cyberspace without locking them up in any way that they are accessible to anyone and everyone. This would be absolutely fine with me if I had any assurance that my words would only be read by the sorts of people that can pick up what I'm puttin' down, can dig what I'm shovelin', and can smell what the rock is cookin' (that last one doesn't really fit with the others, but I needed a list of three. Trust me, without three items a list like that will always seem incomplete).
So what am I saying? I'm saying that the integrity of this blog's readership may be compromised in the same way it was on my old blog. I'm telling you this because I have actually gone back and censored myself by deleting certain things from old entries in an attempt to not criminize (bossspeak for "criminalize") myself by throwing words around too flippantly. So what does this mean for you and why do I bother to mention it? I think it only fair to warn you that the contents of this blog will hereafter contain only those items that are fit for universal consumption. I don't want to lock this blog down and make it harder for my family to read (heaven knows it's hard enough for them to read it as is what with all my rambling verbiage and whatnot) and I don't want to lock it down to the point that some casual blogger can't stumble across it and correct my spelling or tell me what they think about what I write. The point is: you will be getting an edited version of this blog from now on and although it may not be immediately apparent to you or seem to affect you in any way, I'll be dying a little inside. I just wanted you all to know.
The other item of disinterest should get its own heading. So I'll throw a space in here and boldify some text in order to let you know that I'm talking about something completely different now.
Free Things are Sometimes Better Than Their Non-Free Counterparts
Today I realized that I had absolutely no word processing software on my laptop. So what could I do? I could pick up the latest and (according to Microsoft, which has always been a trustworthy corporation) greatest version of Office for a mere $150 (a low low price available only to those with the educational discount) or I could download Open Office for free. I became familiar with Open Office back in 2004 because back then although Khmer had been added to the Unicode library of languages, Microsoft did not support it in their latest version of Office. If you type more than 3 words in Khmer using Microsoft Office, it will crash, freeze, or break down and cry. You can write a book in Khmer in Open Office and it will work absolutely fine.
So I downloaded the latest and greatest version of Open Office (available at http://www.openoffice.org) and was happy to find that not only can I save documents in a number of Microsoft compatible formats, I can also save them as PDF's, uploadable web pages, etc. Open Office is an open source freely downloadable program that actually works better than its $150 counterpart in a number of ways. They have programs that are comparable and compatible with Word, Excel, Access, and all those other overrated Microsoft Office programs. I'm not going to bore you with the details, but you should all be able to sleep better at night knowing that there are communities of smart people who dedicate their lives to giving you things for free that others want to charge you large amounts of money for.
I should also mention that I am writing this blog entry using Firefox. Firefox is another freely available open-source program that is better than the corporate counterpart. Internet Explorer actually has a hard time running the blogger spell check program, but Firefox has a built-in spell check that checks your spelling as you type. Also, Firefox has had tabbed browsing since 2001 (they weren't the first, but they got on board early in the game) and Microsoft just barely jumped on that bandwagon this year. And I haven't even begun to mention how much safer Firefox is in terms of not picking up adware, malware and the like. Also, I got an add-on for Firefox that blocks the sidebar ads on most websites. So when I'm looking at facebook I don't have to look at those American Apparel ads featuring women dressed like strumpets of the 1980s (coincidentally, Strumpets of the 1980s would be a fantastic name for an indie band that releases one moderately good album then breaks up over creative differences all in the course of a single calendar year). When I'm looking at my video gaming sites, I don't have to look at ads for dating websites that feature scantily clad women who would never be caught dead talking to the types of men who have accounts on dating websites. Basically, by downloading a simple add-on, I have fewer people trying to sell me things as I stroll about in cyberspace.
Now some of you may be thinking (who am I kidding? None of you are thinking this), "Isn't Internet Explorer a freely downloadable program, too?" The answer to that is: yeah, it is. But take into account the fact that internet explorer is not the most popular browser in the world because it's the best product on the market. It's the most popular browser because Microsoft spent a lot of time trying to make it mandatory and there are a lot of people out there who aren't even aware of the alternatives or the many benefits the alternatives have to offer.
So here's what I'm saying: I love open source software. I encourage everyone to take a little time and find out if they couldn't be saving money and sanity by using freely available software made by nice people who are striking back at the man and making the world a better place. And now I sound like a cyberhippie, so I'll stop.